Morton's The Steakhouse — Restaurant in Portland

I truly would give zero stars if I could! Setting the scene; my Father In-Laws birthday dinner, reservations made well in advance, and special requests not met (isolated table/booth where celebration could be held privately and without disruption). We arrive, are seated and introduced to our waiter (omitting name to protect against backlash). The inability of this Waiter to provide customer based service was beyond apparent after the first 10 minutes of explaining his personal and professional background while negating our needs as patrons. Waiter proceeds to grab my Mother In-Laws drink from her, as she attempts to grab her straw to reuse, she is met with a glare and a storming off as we were not there to hear his life story. Sure, a little intro is appreciated, but 10 minutes of "Here is Me" is a bit much. The horsd'oeuvres were burnt (bacon steak), and scallops. Next came the nightmare of ordering,which after hearing what they did at the original Morton's in Chicago (where, of course our Waiter was from), we decided to reluctantly choose what we wanted instead of what our Waiter would have eaten. The nerve of us... After eating a few bites of my petite filet mignon that was cooked perfectly but yet tasted like gardening soil, I decided to keep the table vibe lively and avoid complaining. It was my Father In-Laws Birthday and to be celebrated as such. Well, that was the plan anyways. As we are finishing our main course we notice the Waiter has moved onto the only other table in our section, right in front of us (so much for the privacy request). The conversation was appaling in which he was having with the unlucky couple who you could tell were quickly running out of politeness. I actually overhear the Waiter say "Those liberals should have been wiped and and removed before it got so far out of hand.". My mouth hit the floor as did the husband who turned to me in embarrassment and mouthed "I'm so sorry.". I couldn't believe this dude was not only telling every patron of the night his life story but also his political ideology. Oh, and how much water to drink daily to stay healthy. The Waiter was at this point proving to be an absolute menace. After realizing that he had other people to serve, he came over, we asked for boxes and a dessert menu. Boxes and bags came, no dessert menu. The Waiter proceeds to check again on the table in front of us but again after returning, no dessert menu. It is at this point, I had enough. I approached the manager and simply asked; "I would like to pay and leave, our Waiter is obviously too busy and has ignored us for the past 30 minutes. Can you take care of this?". I handed him our CC. Manager disappears for a good 10 minutes, comes by and offers to "take off a few horsd'oeuvres." Not what I asked for, but okay, now where's our CC and check??? Well, here comes Mr. Chicago Right Winger with "Here's your card and a free dessert, I am sorry, I am not sure what happened?!". Well, if you're apologizing for something you have no knowledge of doing, why are you apologizing at all? Oh, thanks for the awkward cherry on top too! The manager absolutely should have handled the transaction, apologized, and allowed us on our way. Instead, he allows this opinionated mess to come over and see what more damage he can cause. At this point, I turn to my In-Laws, my Wife,and apologize as I am not only embarrassed but, now irked! Once I retrieve my vehicle, I call back and ask for Frederick, only to be told that the wife of the table in front of us also complained that the waiter was disrupting their special evening. After apologizing profusely for the Waiter, for forgetting our dessert menu, of which I informed was the farthest issue from attention, the Manager tells me that our Waiter said "we were upset because he forgot our dessert menu?!" Needless to say; I informed Frederick of what transpired,and at that point, I think he understood the gravity of the situation. No compensation offered, only an empty apology! You literally ruined a birthday dinner, and your answer is...

Well I wanted to go to the darkest moodiest steakhouse in town for my birthday, and we walked in to find the darkness had been renovated into some form of brightly lit Princess Cruise dining experience...real bummer...So then we sit at this round table at the interior of the restaurant and the server points out these " seams" in the table we should watch out for with our drinks. Also to note that the top of the table has this foam layer that is unstable surface for drinks. Immediately after she warns us, a drink knocks over and floods water over half the table into my lap. The server tries to clean up but the table was soaked and they said " here, let me blot that up for you"... I asked for a different table but they said no that wasn't possible! So then I just said, Well can't you at least change the table cloth??? And he said, " Well we could but then all of you would have to get up." I said " NO PROBLEM" because otherwise we would be dining at a so called fine establishment with a soaked table cloth trying to enjoy our 60$ steaks without getting our arms wet! So they sat us back down, no one was rude but it was pretty obvious that I had put the staff out by asking for a new table cloth. The server didn't give us enough time to look at the menu, as though we were there forever already and she was keeping track of future reservation times. The lobster Mac was delicious! The potatoes au gratin unfortunately were different from the last time in that they included bacon in them and couldn't be omitted. My family is great in that they give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but I think this was a sub standard experience for the price and reputation Mortons has. And get this- the topper of the night that motivated me to write this review, because I was so mad, was the Valet. Valet is 15$ which is totally fine if you get the experience of them coming to get your car when you get there, and then bringing your car back when you are done dining. Get this- not only does the valet just stand there behind the valet post and not greet us or even offer a hand to my 79 year old mother who uses a cane- he literally just points to our car across the street and says " There it is.." WHAT?? I was incredulous. That was not valet parking! Some Gen Z punk kid pointing at our car after we paid 15$ for valet?? Ridiculous! El Gaucho valet is truly a commendable valet service where you are treated with respect and what happened at Mortons tonight was exact opposite! Does management have any idea that the face of their restaurant is tarnished by a disrespecting kid who cops attitude when expected to do his job? Mortons has either changed ownership or has just gone down hill in their quality of service and atmosphere since the last time I was there. Someone needs to go outside and pay attention to what the valet is failing to do- his job! One star for atmosphere. Two stars for service, zero...

We made a reservation to the Portland, OR Morton's location for our 4th year anniversary, excited to dine at a new place to celebrate our union. When we arrived the hostess was kind and got us seated. The first thing we noticed was the printed menu's for our special occasion read, "Happy 29th Anniversary" (it was our 4th).

A few minutes later our waiter arrived and in our first interaction he was kinda dry but kind enough. He asked about champagne, wine, or other beverages to which we replied water was fine since we drove a long way and wanted to remain clear minded for the drive home. He said he would give us a few minutes to look over the menu then return with bread for the table.

Roughly 30 minutes goes by before he returned to the table as we watched parties seated after us receive bread, have their orders taken, and even begin to receive some of the food items they ordered before our waiter returned.

When he returned, he did not bring bread. He took our orders and again asked if we would like bread for the table as if we hadn't already had that exchange.

He left to put our order in and another 15 minutes goes by without receiving bread as we watched another table seated after us receive bread. Finally our waiter returned with no bread to tell us that he somehow "lost" our ticket on his way to put our order in and needed us to tell him our order again so he could put it in, again ending the interaction asking if we wanted bread. At this point I'm frustrated.

Shortly after this my wife asked a young lady who was refilling waters at another table if we could get bread. The young lady rolled her eyes but assured us we would get bread soon (I think the eye roll was directed at our waiter, not us). We eventually got bread from another waiter right before we were about to grab our belongings and walk out.

Another 30 minutes goes by and our food comes out but it is missing a side dish to which we were told they would be out shortly. The missing side dish never came. Thankfully the food was decent because it was the only bright spot of the evening outside of our conversation as we waited. We ordered the bass, the filet oscar, Brussels, lobster Mac, spinach, and onion rings.

We ate some of our food but because everything took so long we had to get back home to Washington to relieve our babysitter. So at that point we decided to pack up the remainder of our meal.

It took another 15-20 minutes just to get the food packed up and the bill paid.

At this point I believe our waiter sensed our disappointment to which he offered us a dessert on the house. We kindly declined, tipped, and left.

First time at Morton's, last time...